Category Archives: Features

If you don’t know who Eva Marcille is, I’m going to assume you are well-rested because you’ve been SLEEP! She first caught our eye when she won season 3 of the hit series “America’s Next Top Model” and has since been reminding us why we love her. Now-a-days, we can catch Miss Eva Marcille on our television screens on “Girlfriend Confidential: LA” every Monday at 11PM on the Oxygen Network. Whether it is blazing runways, guest starring on different shows or being the diva that she is on her own show, Eva has never lost sight of her real passion: Fashion! Let’s take a look of the fashionista throughout the years:

A recurring issue that continues to rear its ugly head is the ongoing violence on television, specifically between women. With shows such as “Bad Girls Club,” “Basketball Wives,” and “Love and Hip-Hop,” it seems that the television violence among women have become more prevalent and somewhat accepted. Somewhat. Ongoing protests and petitions have been circulating in order to petition shows such as “Love and Hip-Hop” and “Basketball Wives” under the guise that it only perpetuates on-television violence against women, but we have to wonder: is violence the problem? Or is it race?

Before I continue, I am fully aware that we are all in the middle of a race struggle that is dated back to times of slavery and this post is not to add fuel to the fire but to raise awareness on a specific issue. Producers Mona Scott-Young and Shaunie O’Neal have been feeling the brunt of the storm as they are continuously being criticized for their part in creating shows such as “Basketball Wives” and “Love and Hip-Hop.” Their names have become household names as these women are scapegoated for being the reason why violence between women is so accepted on television. These women are also hated and petitioned. But why is that? Why aren’t we petitioning Mark Cronin and, more importantly, Johnathan Murray? I can imagine you readers are scratching your noggins and confused about who these people are but they are the executive producers of “Rock of Love” and “Bad Girls Club” respectively.

People are quick to point their fingers at Mona and Shaunie but ignore that their shows supersedes shows that were created also depicting violence among women. What’s the difference? Well, Da Boss Is Speakin has a simple answer: race. “Rock of Love” and “Bad Girls Club” depicted mostly white women who fight each other episode after episode. For example, the “Bad Girls Club” pulls together seven women with less than stellar social skills and put them in a house to do nothing other than drink and fight. As an avid “Bad Girls Club” Fan, I have watched the series go from a ‘zero-tolerance for fighting’ type of show where girls were ejected from the house should they place a finger on another girl, to a show that is ‘ejected per e situation’ where the fighting is more permissible and the girls are ejected depending on the situation surrounding the fight.

This is not a network problem. Bravo, Oxygen, MTV and Vh1 are doing what they are supposed to be doing: providing us consumers with what we want. We WANT the fighting, we want the drama, we want the screaming matches. They know this based on the ratings of their shows every week. Why do you think that Shaunie continues to bring new seasons of “Basketball Wives” to TV? It isn’t for her health (maybe for her wallet). It is because her show gets great ratings because we watch these shows. The problem lies with us viewers. The same people willing to criticize Mona and Shaunie are the same viewers who tune into “Bad Girls Club” every week. Why are there no petitions against BGC? We need to really think: is the issue the violence… or is it race?